Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) Chairman Asit Tripathy during his Sambalpur visit made it clear that there would be no auditorium in the old bus-stand for which more than Rs 50 lakh has already been spent as ground works and erection of huge cement concrete pillars have been done.

The reason for closing this big-budget project of 1,000-seat auditorium cum modern market complex is insufficient space for fire brigade vehicles during any emergency.   “Because there is no sufficient space of six metres wide around the present site, there could be no fire clearance for it and hence there is no other way than to drop it forever,” said Tripathy when asked about the fate of the project.

But it is a fact that there is no such clearance space for other major buildings of the city including banks, hotels, commercial complexes in the town and they run their business easily, of course with blessing of local administration and fire department.

Former Chairman of WODC late Subash Chauhan dropped this project without assigning any reason for which there was lot of hue and cry.  But Asit Tripathy after taking over the charge assured to continue it. And his sudden about-turn recently has dismayed the locals.

Since there is no modern auditorium in the district to accommodate even 200/300 people at a time, the district administration with former Collector Samarth Verma thought of the project.

The Sambalpur Development Authority (SDA) had provided 1.5 acre of land for it and former Chairman of WODC, Kishore Mohanty, now MLA from Brajarajnagar, had sanctioned Rs 9 crore for the auditorium cum market complex. The ground work for it has also been completed.

 “The project has been dropped with pressure from hotel owners and other business organisations,” alleged some residents here.